Ongoing U.S Police Brutality and Corruption Discussion Thread

it's really hard to watch

Having had a run-in with the Seattle PD when I was younger and living a life of crime, I can attest to their racism first-hand. Won't go into it more than that.

and another thing: Bruce isn't butthurt. Please put his op-ed in the paper saying he's not butthurt.

I don’t take issue with anyone questioning my proposals – there is always room for dialogue and improvement. But I do believe that selectively ridiculing these two out-of-the-box calls for culture change without including the voices of people who may support them comes from a place of privilege.

Who knows better how ineffective reform efforts have been on the entrenched racism of the SPD than someone who personally failed to reform it and continued to fund it for the past decade? In conclusion, please elect me to continue to fully fund, and pass actively useless laws to reform, the police.

To keep doing the same thing – or to focus only on punitive actions like arbitrary defunding – is to perpetuate an SPD mired in dysfunction, clinging to outmoded and racially biased norms, and led by individuals motivated by fear and division, not unity and commitment to change.

We know this because we live it: Despite a decade of Department of Justice oversight, citizen police commission review, passage of statewide de-escalation mandates, and even the anti-bias laws I passed during my City Council tenure, the culture at SPD has not changed. We still see Black and Brown Seattle residents victimized, we still see foot-dragging and refusal to adopt basic reforms.

13 year old who still played with Hot Wheels killed by pigs.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/02/us/chicago-police-shooting/index.html

this just aired recently on pbs
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/blinding-isaac-woodard/

the upshot of it was: Woodard was a uniquely powerful witness and spokesperson against racist cops because instead of murdering him, the cops merely blinded him for ... not saying "yes, sir" and before that "insisting politely that the greyhound bus driver (white) stop at the next town so he could go to the bathroom

https://theintercept.com/2021/04/05/police-shot-k9-dog-arlo-gofundme/

that is fucking ridiculous

i wonder how 73k for a dog (that they shot) stacks up against some of the human rights violation settlements Washington PD has made

https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2021/04/pentagon-officer-charged-with-murder-in-takoma-park-shooting-that-left-2-dead/

BREAKING: Officer Kim Potter resigns after fatally shooting Daunte Wrighthttps://t.co/ozkSlSADAx

— Axios (@axios) April 13, 2021

'Every minute'

BREAKING: Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter has resigned effective immediately. The information comes from the police union representing the department's officers. Here's Potter's resignation letter #DaunteWright #wcco pic.twitter.com/yvSQ68sk2T

— Jennifer Mayerle (@jennifermayerle) April 13, 2021

I'm tired

it's hardly the real problem here but as a publicist it amazes me they don't take five minutes to give those kind of public statements to a crisis management agent to make sure they don't read "i've enjoyed my time murdering people here but i'm making the spot hot so i gotta jet"

Notably the police chief resigned as well, which given his own disaster of a press conference, well.

Just now:

The officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright has been charged with second degree manslaughter. Kim Potter submitted her resignation yesterday. The charge carries a maximum of up to 10 years in prison. #DaunteWright

— Omar Jimenez (@OmarJimenez) April 14, 2021

"Slash their tires so they can't drive away if you need to!" Cops in Minnesota created a warzone-like state and arrested #DaunteWright protesters, along with media covering the events in a highly disturbing night.– @JonFarinaPhoto fearlessly reports. pic.twitter.com/j12eUW3BrC

— Status Coup News (@StatusCoup) April 14, 2021

they are doing such a great job handling this latest killing by a police

"trooper-involved" "ended in the death"

DEVELOPING: Maryland State Police are investigating a trooper-involved fatal shooting in Leonardtown that ended in the death of a 16-year-old. https://t.co/cBOXVGQ2Dk

— ABC News (@ABC) April 14, 2021

at least the headline says it so why not say the same thing in the tweet

cop-speak is the worst. what was the one case where they shot and killed someone and the official line was "the deceased was killed by a bullet"

Things could escalate in Chicago today.

BREAKING: The video of Adam Toledo will be released at 2:30pm today, according to Mayor Lori Lightfoot

— Eileen O’Gorman (@Eileen_OGorman) April 15, 2021

More context:

Chicago is releasing bodycam video of the police killing of #AdamToledo, who was a 13-year-old boy.

Police claim there was an "armed confrontation" and shot him in the chest. The mayor says she saw "no evidence whatsoever" that Toledo shot at police.

(Photo: Elizabeth Toledo) pic.twitter.com/RuqToA9z5X

— AJ+ (@ajplus) April 15, 2021

btw, word is already going out around here - please do NOT share that video, once it's public

please.

Police claim there was an "armed confrontation"

Police are perfectly capable of characterizing having a small rock thrown at them from a distance as an "armed confrontation".

chauvin case wrapped up testimony, closing statements monday

Hands up, as the officer instructed.

toledo footage is exactly as bad as you'd expect.

Fuck the police.

I just have no idea what to say beyond “I’m worried about early next week.”

(I haven’t watched any of these videos.)

For any of you who want to know about what the video of Adam Toledo shows but do not want to see the video or any images of it, we've created that version of the story for you. @BlockClubCHI https://t.co/ewFHDT4d5H

— Dawn Rhodes 😷 (@rhodes_dawn) April 15, 2021

murder

FFS there is no end to this shit

By the way, remember when police departments were caught using cutouts of kids and pregnant women for target practice? The line of targets was called "no more hesitation."

This is what "no hesitation" policing gets you.https://t.co/RSGVICbnbd pic.twitter.com/4pULHk68GG

— Radley Balko (@radleybalko) April 15, 2021

Fucking sickening

The cop who shoots pictures of his own children... pic.twitter.com/fmr8AL7WcC

— Cameron (@ComfortableCam) April 15, 2021

Chris Benoit Police Training Method

fucking chickenshit headline writers "appears to show" toledo with his hands raised fuck you

no bump to this thread?!?!? i realize the work is just beginning but it seems worth noting
guilty guilty guilty

i've seen people wondering exactly how and where and with whom he'll be incarcerated -- and how he'll survive

and you know, fuck him forever; i will never ever shed a tear about his fate. but also it is pretty fucked up how we accept the twisted logic of prisons

He’ll survive in protective custody, probably getting treated like a king by the guards.

xxp decent amount of discussion in US politics thread. grateful for this verdict, as stated by many, not 'justice' but some accountability at long last. george floyd square was mellow, solemn, and celebratory tonight. hope the cops don't riot tonight, since they instigate almost all violence here and everywhere

fucked up that it takes *this* case, so obvious, to result in some consequences though

I just wanted to make sure the Ilx record showed this thread bumped for this reason

Also bless the steel nerves of the bystanders who made this verdict possible ❤️

Kim Potter is being charged, right? (Duante Write's killer); what is happening with the officer who shot Toledo? It seems like that hasn't stayed in the news; but with this shit happening every day (it happened today too 15 year old girl) it's getting hard to keep up

Potter's been charged, yes.

more information on Ma'Khia Bryant shooting: https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/crime/2021/04/20/one-person-killed-officer-involved-shooting-east-side/7309088002/

warning, there is a video of the incident in it, and I do think it auto-plays upon opening, though it can be disabled rather quickly. but just warning anybody before opening.

Dave Grossman, who trains police departments across the nation, tells a group of cops, the best sex is after killing a person. He calls it a “perk of the job,” followed by laughter from the police in attendance.

This is policing in America. pic.twitter.com/QkaEVOQcUX

— Travis Akers (@travisakers) April 22, 2021

“Killology” is a science Dave Grossman created and popularized, which instructs his students to be less hesitant to use deadly force.https://t.co/tCWtLyfm0n

— Travis Akers (@travisakers) April 22, 2021

I'm not clicking on it, but jfc the description of that first is sickening.

really need a “Dexter” but for ‘bad apple’ cops